Better than the alternative? Peter A. Hempel – 10/16/25   When my father moved into his late 80s, his memory began to fail. He was an academic, a world-renowned figure in the field of philosophy of science. He loved his family and loved being with friends; he had a wonderful sense of humor. But his intellectual career was central to who he was. He loved having in-depth discussions with colleagues about different issues in philosophy of science, and in particular, questions of what constituted...

My Car, My Body Peter A. Hempel (10/03/25)   My senior year in high school, my parents gave me their old car. This was in 1961, and the car was a 1948 Plymouth, an extremely popular model in its heyday.   My parents were not car people. My father had had a near-fatal bike accident in his early 20s and took it as a sign that he should not be in charge of vehicles of any sort. My mother, who grew up in Philadelphia and New York, had never had any need for a car. But when my father was teaching...

TEXT AS COPY: A Prolegomenon Towards a New Theory of Intentionality   Peter A. Hempel, Ph.D.   TEXT. As signifier, this is a term riddled...